Thoughts on Capsule Night--and a Wish

Capsule Night--not sure where the name came from--in some schools it is called Curriculum Night.

First of all, it's fabulous. Fabulous to see the teachers. (I kind of wish they did it each semester.) Fabulous to get a sense of my child's day, and at least create a mental map of where he is in each class. How many stairs does he climb every day?

Second of all, it's fun to see the parents--the ones I know, the ones I don't know. It made me realize I miss a lot of people whom I used to see regularly, back in elementary school. Next year, can we pair capsule night with some social time for parents at a coffee shop or bar? (Or in the school...)

Third of all, even though the classes are, like, 12 minutes each, I felt like I was sitting all too long! (Which is really funny, because mostly, I sit at a computer in my day job...)

Fourth of all--I was struck by how much access to computers teachers are requiring. And I wondered--if we didn't have more than one computer at our house--and/or if we had more than one child in high school now--that could potentially be a big problem. The technology divide seems to get bigger. And it's a lot more computer work than I remember from my two older kids. Which really makes me wonder--how much of that is necessary? Because exacerbating a technology divide is not a good thing.

Last, but not least, a wish:

Every year when I walk into the math class at Capsule Night, it reminds me that I wish the school district would offer a free evening class in every middle school and high school for parents, on how to use a graphing calculator. I'm sure it's not hard, but we didn't use them back when I took Algebra...or Geometry...or Trig....or Calculus. You know, back when the dinosaurs were alive.


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What is in the Smarter Balanced Pilot Test?

Read Part I:
Smarter Balanced Test: Try It Out Before Your Kids Take It

Read Part II:
Smarter Balanced Comes to Ann Arbor a Year Early. Why?


And here is Part III.

What is in the Smarter Balanced Pilot Test and How Will It Be Given?

The Smarter Balanced Test is a non-timed test (although there is a certain amount of time that they expect the test to take. It is given on a computer. The testing can be split up over several days. The test itself includes a variety of types of questions, including questions that are "drag and drop" (you drag objects into a location and "drop" them there); "click stick" (also known as click-stick-click-drop, and it requires less fine motor skills); multiple choice; and short answer questions. All of the answers, including the short answers, are graded by a computer. Smarter Balanced calls the computer program that delivers the test the "test delivery system." I'm not sure why I find that so humorous, but I do.

There are two parts to the Smarter Balanced Test. There is a "non-performance task" section--estimated to be two hours long for the English Language Arts section, and two hours long for the Math section. And there is a "performance task" section, which involves a half-hour classroom activity that is supposed to provide a "baseline" for a theme, and related to that there is an ELA section (estimated at two hours long) and a Math section (estimated at an hour and a half).

The idea of the performance-based task is that it allows testing of critical thinking and problem solving. The example I was given was that if you had a class task about teen driving restrictions, that there would be baseline information shared about those, and students would then be able to incorporate that information into their activities.

The classroom task itself is considered "non-secured," but at the same time, "Students may take notes during this time, but the notes must be collected before proceeding to the PT. Students may not use notes taken during the classroom activity for the PT." (Source.) Also, if students are absent the teachers are supposed to try to give the students who missed a similar experience.

The pilot tests are not "adaptive," they are "fixed." (In other words, they are the same for every student. Supposedly, the actual test will be made adaptive next year.)

Read lots more about the Smarter Balanced test here:

Classroom Task and Performance Task Administration Guidelines

Frequently Asked Questions for Spring 2014 Field Test

Here are the goals of the Smarter Balanced test, as taken from the Smarter Balanced Assessment web site:

• Accurately describe both student achievement and growth of student learning as part of program evaluation and school, district, and state accountability systems; 

• Provide valid, reliable, and fair measures of students’ progress toward, and attainment of the knowledge and skills required to be college- and career-ready; and 

• Capitalize on the strengths of computer adaptive testing—efficient and precise measurement across the full range of achievement and quick turnaround of results. (emphases added)

Just a comment about that "valid, reliable, and fair measures" piece. In case it's not obvious, if you don't read well, you are not going to do well on the math test, even if you are a math whiz.

As for "efficient and precise measurement," given that computers will be assessing students' writing, I'm not sure how precise it will be, although it certainly will be efficient!


But enough about the test.
I'm more interested in the testing.

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"Smarter Balanced" Comes to Ann Arbor a Year Early. Why?

A few weeks ago, a couple of teachers emailed me. Here's a sample email.

"If you haven't already heard, I thought I'd alert you that Pioneer (and some of the other comprehensive high schools) have added at the state's request about ten hours of additional testing - 4 1/2 in English and 4 1/2 in math. It is some sort of pilot of the Smarter Balanced test. This will happen in April, right before APs, for the junior class. The juniors will miss 5 English and 5 math classes in April! There is an "explanation" but it all seems really fishy to me. There was mention of the state paying us do do this, but then we were told that wasn't true. It all seems suspect to me and really a crime against our juniors who have already done the MME." (Emphases added.)

I started doing a little investigating,  and that's why I wrote, last week:

Smarter Balanced Test: Try It Out Before Your Kids Take It

(You can find the link to a sample test there.)

I also asked for some information from the school district, and I appreciate the time that Jeanice Swift, LeeAnn Dickinson-Kelly, Jane Landefeld and Merri Lynn Colligan spent explaining both the pilot test and the district's point of view to me. I think it's fair to say that the district's point of view is not the same as the parents' or teachers' or kids' point of view (at least not based on the emails I've gotten or seen posted on Facebook). That is at least partly because the district is beholden to the state in a way that the parents, teachers, and kids are not.

So, in fact--yes. All of the high schools will be piloting at least some portion of the Smarter Balanced test--with the exception of Community, which apparently did this pilot last year.  By ALL of the high schools, I mean: Pioneer, Skyline, Huron, Ann Arbor Tech, and Clemente. Huron will only test the English Language Arts (ELA) test, and the others will test both ELA and Math. The decision of which schools to test was made by the Smarter Balanced Consortium itself and not by the district.

The test window is from April 7th to May 16th for all of the schools (which really means it starts April 14th since the schools are closed this week), but Pioneer got an extension to June 6th. (I don't know why, but...) Each school has a fair amount of autonomy as to how the tests will be given. More about that later.

So why is this happening? 

The district got a Technical Readiness Infrastructure Grant. To receive it, the district needed to promise to meet nine criteria. (I think some other districts in the county also got this, but I don't know which ones. In the grant they refer to charter schools as "districts" as well.) I am hoping to get the district's grant itself, soon, but in the meantime, you can enjoy reading the RFP and the FAQ and all that other good stuff from the state Department of Education itself. One of the requirements is that at least 20% of district students "pilot" online assessments of various stripes--there are many more of those than even I was aware of!

Read the state's RFP. Here's a little excerpt:

PURPOSE OF THE GRANT: 

The Technology Readiness Infrastructure Grant Program will fund the following
activities:

1. Developing and implementing collaborative purchasing arrangements for
statewide network services, and personal learning and assessment devices.
2. Establishing sustainable, cost effective collaborations of technology and data
related services to assist schools and districts to become “test ready.” 
3. Building the capacity of educators at ISDs, public school districts, and public
school academies to effectively plan and implement online assessments and
“Any Time, Any Place, Any Way, Any Pace” learning.

Update 4/7/2014: Just to give a balanced perspective here--even though I read the grant's purpose as being All About Testing, a friend who is a teacher in another district that has this same grant wrote me (after I posted this), that there are some very good things coming out of the technology infrastructure grants. 

She wrote, 

In my experience, it's not at all about extra testing. Our team is 100% responsible for implementation and we are using it to do teacher training on subjects like using gaming in classrooms and integrating byd (cell phones etc) into classrooms without access to computer labs. I'm using my time to do pilot programs on 20time which is very unschooling and open in philosophy, and a minecraft classroom.

And here are some reasons that the district thought applying for this grant, and doing this extra testing, would be a good idea. (And here, I'm trying to put forth the district's "best foot," so to speak.)

Smarter Balanced is going to replace the MEAP next year, and:

a. since the test will be given online, this gives the district a chance to test their systems and technology
b. allows teachers and administrators to get a much better idea of what the test is like (those "sample" tests you can take don't really do it)--this could allow them to prepare for professional development and prepare students as to what to expect
c. they get paid for it--not a huge amount, but $10/student in the district. Given the tightness of the budget, that is not insignificant. (Although it does also tell you how much staff time and effort these online assessments take. I think the district sees this as a mostly-break-even deal.)

Last, but not least, the district sees this as preparing for mandated, high-stakes testing.

There is more that I could say. There is more that I will say. (All week!)

But for right now, I think the key points to remember are:

a. It may be state mandated in the future, but it isn't mandated this year. This year, it is voluntary.

b. When it is mandated, it is really high stakes for the district, but not really for the students. (It won't be used, for example, for grade promotion.)

c. Current plans from the state are for the Smarter Balanced test to be given to 3d to 8th graders, and high school juniors.

d. Kudos to the district for making it clear that taking the test is voluntary, and making it easy for parents to opt their children out of these tests. You just have to send the principal an email or letter saying that is what you are doing.

Read more about the money flowing between the various companies for all this testing. But Michigan's school districts are so hungry for cash that they will comply for chump change.

Coming soon:
--What is in the pilot, and how is it being given in different schools?
--What does the school letter look like? How are parents and teachers reacting?
--Word choice: assessment vs. testing
--Will other kids/classes (9th/10th/12th; other subjects beside English and Math) lose out?
--If we didn't use tests, what other outcomes could we use?





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iPad Technology in Schools: What's the Highest, Best Use?

The other day, Amy Biolchini's story about the Chelsea Schools and their iPad problems caught my eye. In "Students evading security software, gaming on iPads post challenge at Chelsea High School," Biolchini writes that,

Officials at Chelsea High School are learning there’s an iPad application for just about everything—except for keeping students from gaming during class.
After the school shifted to one-for-one computing this fall with iPads in the hands of each of the 839 students, administrators are working through challenges inside and outside of school.
A program loaded on to the student’s iPads that filters Internet access has made it difficult for students to work on the devices outside of the school building.
“The biggest challenge has been the whole filter piece,” said Superintendent Andy Ingall. “We certainly want kids to be protected, but it’s a challenge. Access at home has been a big challenge for a pretty good-sized group of kids.”
Nine weeks into the implementation, students are now able to access the Internet at home on their iPads. But now administrators are turning to another issue that’s arisen: students are finding it easy to get away with playing games on the iPads in class.

The reason this caught my eye is that a couple of weeks ago I had read an article in Slate magazine about the roll-out of iPads in the Los Angeles United School District. And that process--which is a $1 BILLION program, by the way--has also not gone so well. Essentially, it has taken almost no time for students to be able to hack the iPads, which were set to essentially be Pearson curriculum delivery devices. Pearson (a for-profit textbook manufacturer, among other things) has contracted with Apple to put its copyrighted material on the iPads. Conveniently enough, they also provide standardized tests to go with them! AND because the Pearson contract is directly with Apple, and not with the school district, it seems to be almost impossible to find out how much money Pearson is making off of this. But I digress, because my main point is this:

From the Huffington Post:

It took just a week for nearly 300 students who got iPads from their Los Angeles high school to figure out how to alter the security settings so they could surf the Web and access social media sites.

But the Slate article, entitled Kids Should Hack Their School Provided iPads, had a slightly different perspective. The subtitle? "That's how they learn." Writes Katherine Mangu-Ward, 

Last year, 40 tablet computers were delivered to the children of two remote Ethiopian villages. The villagers were 100 percent illiterate—the kids had never seen road signs, product labels, or printed material of any kind.
Technicians from the One Laptop Per Child program dropped off a stack of boxes, showed a couple of adults how to use the solar chargers, and then walked away. Within minutes, the kids had cracked the packaging open and figured out how to turn the tablets on. Within weeks, they were singing their ABCs, picked up from the English-language learning software installed on the tablets. Within five months, some kid figured out that the tablets had built-in cameras—they had been disabled for ethical reasons—and hacked the Android operating system to activate them.
So, frankly, it shouldn’t have come as much of a shock when a few hundred of the tech-drenched children of Los Angeles figured out how to “hack” the $678 iPads they were given by their school district, just one month into the new school year.

The article goes on to say:

But why would students gaining mastery over their digital devices be considered a “runaway train” at all? The iPads were loaded with software from the textbook giant Pearson, so perhaps the fantasy was that high school students would be content paging through glowing versions of their textbooks.
But the whole point of introducing current technology into the classroom is to help education catch up with the rest of the world, which has been utterly transformed by fast computers with fast Internet access.
Unfortunately, when it comes to technology in education, traditional schools tend to use fuzzy math. Give ’em iPads, the thinking goes, and the test scores will soar. The intended mechanism isn’t always clear, and the vision becomes even more muddled when the inevitable committees, unions, and concerned parents get involved. The result too often is restricted access to semi-useless tech crippled by proprietary software deals and censored Internet.
Implementing bold ideas like “flipping the classroom”—having students watch lectures at home and spending their classroom hours doing problem sets, engaging in group discussions, or getting one-on-one tutorials—means letting kids use the relevant tech on their own time and in their own way. It means trusting them with access to devices like the ones they might someday use at work. 

 In the Chelsea schools, the cost was around $575,000 and was taken from technology funds, from the 2012 bond.

Technology director Scott Wooster said falling technology prices coupled with leftover money that had been budgeted for computer replacement cycles put the district in a position that administrators felt they could make the iPad purchase.

So what are the plans for replacement cycles?

While the teachers are rightfully concerned with gaming going on in classrooms (a concern I share somewhat, but really--what did they expect?), I found a couple of other things concerning in Biolchini's article on the Chelsea schools. (And I have no idea about most of what is on the iPads. Is it Pearson--or other--textbooks?)

1. There is an app called iBoss on the iPads. It not only filters the internet, it is a tracking device.

If it gets to the point where we need to regulate what students are looking at or downloading, iBoss keeps an account of that. The only time that we will check that is if a parent calls us, or is a teacher in class notices a student off-task and is looking at sites that maybe they shouldn’t be then we can pull up their history,” Kapolka [Chelsea High School principal] said.

You might feel that students need tracking. I myself am more concerned with "Big Brother" than I am with students doing some gaming. However, in the article, one of the students asserts that lots of students have been deleting the iBoss app.

2. Sophomore Alayna Schweda said,

On one hand, your studying materials: you don’t have the your second time of writing them down in notes, so it’s a little harder to remember, and it’s kind of a big transition.

So now we encourage students to study things but they don't take notes on them?

3. What's the penalty for gaming?

Taking the device away if a student is found gaming is the school’s solution now. Students will receive two warnings for misuse before the device is completely taken away from them.

So if the textbooks and the classwork and the homework are all on the iPad, and you take the iPad away, how exactly is that student going to be able to keep up with the classes? This reminds me of some of the research on student suspensions, which indicates that when you take kids out of the classroom, they fall further behind.

My takeaways from this:

1. Administrators and teachers are often blinded by shiny new technology. I'm not saying that technology can't be used for good in classrooms. Of course it can be, and some teachers do. But most, don't.

2. Technology can often be a distraction. There is a reason the Socratic method has lasted as long as it has. Questioning, and discussions, are fundamental to teaching. To the extent that technology can support discussion and understanding, that's great--but often, it serves to distract from that.

3. If one is going to use technology in the classroom, then one can't be afraid of the technology. Fundamentally, I think the idea of "controlling" the students using the technology is at odds with students using the technology.

4. Beware Big Brother. Who controls all the information that gets input into the iPad or computer, when students answer math questions or write an essay? Does that information go back to the textbook manufacturers or is it only used locally? I think it's fair to ask what is on the iPads (or other technology), and how that fits into for-profit educational models. Certainly, Apple and Pearson stand to make a boatload of money (or two boatloads! $1 billion dollars, if the deal--currently paused--eventually goes through). I think there are some civil liberties issues here.

5. Clarity of purpose, use, and replacement planning is essential. It doesn't seem to me that either Chelsea schools or the Los Angeles schools have that. Who is paying for these and what is the replacement cycle? What is their purpose? How will they be used differently from textbooks? (Because iPads are very expensive textbooks.) What happens if a student breaks or loses an iPad?

When we can answer these questions, then we might be ready to include the technology in the schools.

NWEA Testing Cancelled for January: A Positive Sign?

Ann Arbor school parents with students in the affected schools (all of the elementary schools, plus Ann Arbor Open and Scarlett) got this email the other day:

Dear AAPS Parents and Staff:

The NWEA MAP assessment was carefully selected for the purpose of evaluating student progress and has been utilized in the district for the past two school years. We believe in the power of quality assessment data to inform teacher practice to meet the individual instructional needs of our students. Unfortunately, we have encountered technical difficulties with NWEA assessments this fall and as a result, will be implementing mid-year changes in our 2013-2014 district testing protocol. As we implemented the NWEA MAP web-based testing system this fall, many students experienced technical difficulties in accessing the tests, delays between questions, and system outages. Over recent weeks, District representatives have been working diligently with NWEA to address these technical concerns and to determine the validity of the fall assessment data. As a result, the Fall NWEA MAP student progress reports will not accompany report cards during this fall assessment cycle. Despite our best efforts, NWEA has been unable to ensure that these technical issues can be resolved prior to the scheduled winter assessment. In light of the technical difficulties, we have decided to suspend winter 2014 testing. You can expect to hear more in the coming months as we monitor this situation and use this time to coordinate opportunities for teachers, parents and administrators to look more deeply into our current Ann Arbor Public Schools assessment practices. We will work together with a forward focus on the opportunities coming to us with the next generation of assessments and how we may leverage these opportunities to improve teaching and learning for all our students. We will remain in touch with you over the coming months to provide updates as we move toward the time for end-of-year assessments. Sincerely, Jeanice K. Swift Superintendent of Schools Ann Arbor Public Schools

Just a few notes:

A quick observation about the technical difficulties. When we started using the NWEA MAP test, there were major technical difficulties, and the district was told it was because of our "old" computers. From my point of view the customer service was also terrible because the district was told that the students' test scores couldn't be suppressed at the end of the tests.
Then the technology bond passed, and now Ann Arbor's computers are no longer too old, but there are still "technical difficulties," poor customer service, etc. It's also a little bit confusing because several other districts in the county use the NWEA MAP test, and I think a lot of them haven't had the same kinds of problems. Why is that?
What does it say, also, for the future of computerized testing in general? The test that is supposed to replace the MEAP next year is a computerized test.

Cancelling the January testing is good news, in that it means more time for teachers to teach, and it also means the computer labs won't be tied up for weeks. It was a smart move by Jeanice Swift, since the district was already anticipating the testing being a failure because of the technical problems. It  doesn't mean anything (yet) for future rounds of the test.

"We believe in the power of quality assessment." Yes, so do I!  Let's find the right tools for quality assessment. (We may not need to look far.)

I hope this comes to pass: We will "use this time to coordinate opportunities for teachers, parents and administrators to look more deeply into our current Ann Arbor Public Schools assessment practices."

And here's the thing--if you appreciate the cancelling of this round of tests (or if you don't); if you think these tests are not useful (or if you think they are); if you have other ideas for assessments. . . send Jeanice Swift a note and let her know what you are thinking!

Tuesday Primary: Whitmore Lake Votes

It's Tuesday, and it's primary day. 

I always believe that you should vote if there is a reason to be out there.

In the Whitmore Lake Public School district, there is a $12.3 million bond proposal on the ballot.

This is a facilities and technology bond, and will support facilities, transportation, athletic fields, and technology. If you live in the district, I encourage you to vote yes. Given the fact that per-pupil funding for districts is where it was over ten years ago, and that districts cannot vote to increase their per-pupil funding, using bonds to support the things that *can* be covered is, in my view, essential.

Here is part of what the Whitmore Lake Board of Education has to say:

The Board of Education conducted a
comprehensive facilities analysis over the course of several years to examine the
condition of our facilities and equipment and forecasted emerging trends in
facility and technology use. That research and analysis led to several conclusions,
including: 

While our facilities are of varying ages, all are in need of upgrades 

Our security systems are not where they need to be given recent events at
other schools in the country 

New testing requirements of the State, such as mandatory on-line testing,
will require additional capital investment, and at the same time the State
has reduced funding to schools 

Our district needs to continue to provide a high-quality educational
environment and learning tools for students – including upgrades to
technology 

ALL of these bond dollars are kept locally and for the benefit of WLPS
students

Read more here.

Need New Reading Material? Take a Look at My Blogroll, Part I

Today, I'm posting about the education blogs on my blogroll. Next Sunday, look for all of the assorted other blogs on my blogroll. Note: these are not in any particular order.

National Education Blogs

• Diane Ravitch--she posts a lot of information about public education around the country. There is a lot of good stuff but it can be hard to keep up.
• @ The Chalk Face Knows Schools Matter--this is two blogs merged into one. I used to really like Schools Matter. I don't like the format of this "wedded" blog as much but there is a lot of good information. But I love their mission: to defend public education and oppose the so-called "reform" movement.
• Modern School: A public school teacher blogs about education, science, youth, and labor. Lately this blog has had a lot of information about labor. If you're interested in teachers' and administrators' unions, this is a good place for you to look.
• Assorted Stuff: This blog is written by an east coast educator/technology person. After I read a post of his, I often wish I'd thought to write about it first. He also has a nice education blogroll (even though I'm not on it :)
• Eduwonk: Some might find this education policy blog slightly too conservative (I think the author would describe it as centrist). However, he writes short pieces that point to interesting policy discussions at the national level. Mostly, the author links rather than editorializes.
• Title IX blog: Honestly, this is one of my favorite blogs. Title IX had a major impact on my life, and probably yours as well, and if you are interested in gender equality issues in schools at all levels, this is worth your time. The authors track stories from across the country. (Go ahead, do a search on the Title IX blog for Ann Arbor. We're in there.)
• Electric Educator: John Sowash posts from Oakland County, MI so I guess I could count him as a "local" educator--but the topic he blogs about is technology, particularly using Google programs, in the classroom. That information is useful no matter where you are in the country. He teaches at a private Christian school in Oakland County.
• School Finance 101: A thoughtful blog from Bruce Baker on school finance issues across the country.
• Honestly, I think this overview post on school funding is a must read.
• A "Fuller" Look at Education Issues: Dr. Ed Fuller looks at K-12 and higher education issues. The blog is rather data heavy, and often focuses on Texas, but it offers a good template for some ways data could be used to investigate "education reform."
• Scrap the MAP: Solidarity with teachers opposing the NWEA MAP test. Ann Arbor could learn a lot from them.
• Students Last: I just discovered this blog. It is kind of like the Onion for educators. If you like satire, if you liked Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal, this blog is for you. Just look at its tagline: "If you care about education, we would like to encourage you to stop." You would laugh, except it's a truth that hurts.

Local Education Blogs

• k12christinestead.com: Kudos to AAPS School Board member Christine Stead for blogging regularly. Christine follows state education policy closely and is a good source for that information.
• Saline Superintendent's Blog: Scot Graden posts fairly regularly (and I think there are some related blogs from some other Saline administrators that are not on the blog roll). Scot's posts are generally fairly positive and short--if you live in Saline you definitely should be reading him!
• Okemos Parents for Schools: This group is loosely affiliated with Michigan Parents for Schools and I like their web page. 
• Oakland Schools: Lead blogger is Jean McLeod, and I think this group is also loosely affiliated with Michigan Parents for Schools.
• Education Matters: I just discovered this blog by a Van Buren Schools school board trustee. Martha Toth doesn't blog all that often, but this post about charter schools is quite good.

The Next Terrible Idea: Vouchers for Vendors

Steven Norton posted in Michigan Parents for Schools Steven Norton 1:26am May 23 Here's our latest action alert: we need to tell the school aid budget conference committee members that Vouchers for Vendors has got to go! The new Section 21f, included in the budget, would require districts to allow students to take two online courses per semester. The problem starts when it's not clear who gets to approve the online providers. Our local schools have to foot the bill, and live with the results, but don't get to approve the courses or even decide what it means to pass! Now there's news from Louisiana about a similar program there which has ended up being used for fraud. Thousands of students were unknowingly signed up for online classes, or signed up for ones they don't need or were in the wrong grade level, by companies going door-to-door in low-income neighborhoods to recruit students. Those who were told what was going on were mainly promised a free iPad, and left the details to the hired recruiter. We don't want or need that kind of scandal here. Vouchers for Vendors has got to go! Spread the word! Get rid of Vouchers for Vendors www.capwiz.com Get rid of Vouchers for Vendors View

Read. Think. Act

Things to read:

Article about the experience of being a test grader: Inside the multimillion-dollar essay-scoring business. Reading about scoring reminded me of the essay my son wrote for a test once that I actually published.

Article about Ann Arbor Public School teachers losing their domestic partner benefits due to the union contract being renegotiated due to Right to Work, and the anti-domestic partner legislation passed two years ago in Michigan. (Note: this is also true of Washtenaw County employees, and probably others in the state.) I. feel. terrible. about. this.

Article about how Snyder and Co. knew all about the Skunk Works project. 

Article about Albion closing its high school. (One thing I don't understand about this--it was my impression that state law says that a district is defined by having a high school. But it appears this won't automatically dissolve the district.)

Think and Act. Or in some cases, Act and Think.

The former "SkunkWorks" group now headed by Michigan Superintendent Flanagan has set up a new Facebook page asking for input. Please. Give them a piece of your mind.

The Ann Arbor Schools are asking you to fill out a survey about the qualities most important to you in a Superintendent. Find the survey here. It's fairly short, but before you fill it out, think about how you want to answer qualities that could be interpreted in more than one way. There are several of those. For instance, what exactly do they mean by "Is comfortable leading innovation and reform efforts?" Is that a code word for another Broad Foundation candidate? I'm all for innovation along the lines of more project-based work and more magnets, but I'm not for corporate reform. . . As it happens, there is a comments box at the bottom. Use it!

There is a MoveOn petition to the Ann Arbor school board asking the district not to cut high school transportation because of its disparate impact on low-income kids. If you are in agreement, please sign it here. (I did.)

Checking for Plagiarism

Last year, a friend of mine who was doing adjunct teaching at Eastern Michigan University posted on Facebook that in a class of 30 students who had just turned in papers, she had realized that five of them (5!!!) had turned in papers that they found on the internet. At least some of them downloaded the same paper! All of them had B or better averages before they turned in their final papers...

In any case, plagiarism is a problem, whether you teach middle school, high school, or college, and the Electric Educator (John Sowash) has a post with some suggested tools for checking for plagiarism.

He writes,

A free, simple, alternative that I have been using for several years is "The Plagiarism Checker" from dustball.com. Paste in a bunch of text from a suspect paper and The Plagiarism Checker will quickly perform a Google search of multiple portions of the submitted text."

Read the rest here.

Tuesday's Election Day, Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti

Let's start with the tech bond in the Ann Arbor schools. I started out ambivalent about supporting it. After all, philosophically I think most of the technology should be funded through operating funds. I expressed this feeling (and got some good discussion) in this previous post, How Should Schools Pay For Technology? (Read the comments, too, I think they are helpful.)

I still believe that--but I've also become convinced that in this current "climate"--by which I mean the state's continued cutting of funding to our public schools--that it is simply not feasible to expect technology funding to come from operating funds and not seriously affect our schools by taking money away from other things.

I've gotten seriously annoyed at our new Superintendent because every time we've raised the issue of the NWEA MAP test, she has responded that the "problems" are due to our old technology. Well, that's only true if you accept that the test itself is a good thing. If you think the test itself is a bad thing, then technology is not the problem, and it's not the solution either. Nonetheless--I'm not voting against the bond even though I'm unhappy with the testing, and unhappy with the pay increases for administration. I'm voting for the bond because I think it's a way to limit the destructiveness of current state policies around education. I'm voting for the bond because I think our students and teachers will benefit.

I wish that this bond was to support a county-wide operating millage for all school districts--but it's not. If that's put on the ballot in November, I'll support it then--in addition to this bond.

I also want to mention the Ypsilanti votes. I'd encourage you to check out Mark Maynard's virtual cyber debate, which he set up because the anti-income tax people didn't want to debate publicly. If you are a regular reader, you know that I don't live in Ypsilanti. But I'm pretty sure that based on where I work, I will be taxed through the new income tax, if it passes. Nonetheless, I hope if you live in Ypsilanti that you will vote for the income tax and the Water St. millage. I believe that a healthy city is necessary for healthy schools, and I also want people to have access to police and fire departments that are properly staffed!

So--
Roses are red
Money is green
This May please vote yes
On the voting scene.

Apologies to all for awful poetry.

News Hits

Milan schools are thinking about whether they should drop the Big Reds name and the Native American logos associated with it. I guess another alternative would be to keep the name (which arose from their red uniforms!) and change the logos (which arose from the name Big Reds).

I just found out that the Washtenaw County parks have more than one accessible playground. At Independence Lake park there is an accessible playground and fishing pier. Rolling Hills has a new accessible playground. Rolling Hills also has a new braille description of a walk in Sassafras Woods, available for a loan.

Ann Arbor school's technology millage campaign is kicking off this week. Read more about it in this annarbor.com article. Or if you prefer, look at the Ann Arbor Citizens Millage Campaign website.

The Michigan Islamic Academy is suing Pittsfield Township over its denial of the Academy's rezoning request for property on which they had planned to build a school, based on religious discrimination. The Council on American Islamic Relations has joined the lawsuit, and the U.S. Department of Justice has opened a formal investigation as well.

Last, but not least! The groups collecting signatures to put the emergency financial manager law on the ballot have collected enough signatures to bring them to Lansing to be validated. They have collected over 218,000 signatures and need the state to certify 161,000 of them as legitimate in order to get the voter referendum on the November ballot.

This Week's Observations: Banned Books, Technology, and Charters

Plymouth-Canton Schools (which actually do draw a small number of students from Washtenaw County have banned two books from an AP English class. The books? Toni Morrison's Beloved, which won a Pulitzer Prize, and which the New York Times called ""the single best work of American fiction published in the last 25 years." The second book is Graham Swift's Waterland, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.
This whole kerfuffle came about because a couple of parents complained about the books. It's unclear to me whether proper procedure was followed. Did the interim superintendent follow procedure? Is there procedure? (I don't know the details though, so I can't say for sure about that. I understand that some of the school board members are very conservative.) In any case. . . speculation aside. . . the ACLU of Michigan has written the district a letter. According to the ACLU's press release,

the ACLU of Michigan reminded the district that although schools have broad discretion in setting curriculum, the U.S. Supreme Court has held repeatedly that banning books because they offend some runs afoul of the First Amendment. While parents have the right to guide their own child’s education, that right does not extend to restricting other students’ educational opportunities. (Emphasis added.)

In addition, I'll just note the tremendous irony of banning books in a high school AP class because of "mature subjects." I mean, AP classes are supposed to be like college. College is all about reading books that challenge us! In case you're wondering about the reasons that we shouldn't be trying to create colleges out of high schools, I think you just saw one reason in action--it makes some parents too uncomfortable.

Christine Stead, Ann Arbor school board member, has started a blog of her own. I'm planning to link to it in my blogroll, and you should take a minute to check it out at k12christinestead.com. She tells me she's new at blogging, so if you have ideas of subjects that you hope she will cover, or reflections about what she writes, feel free to let her know in the comments. (Bloggers love comments. :)  By the way, do I think it is competition? No. I'm a parent, not a school board member. It's more like have several restaurants on the same street--the more the merrier--that way you can choose if you want Chinese or Italian. There are, by the way, a gazillion education blogs out in the world. I've only linked to a few of them on my blogroll.

The Ann Arbor schools have joined the twitterverse! Follow them at @a2schools. Follow Saline schools at @salineschools. Follow Dexter schools at @dexterschools. And follow Ypsilanti schools at @ypsischools. Saline schools also have several sub-twitter feeds (the high school principal, the athletics department, etc.) Oh, and follow me at @schoolsmuse.

Some interesting things have been going on at the first charter school I ever profiled, Ann Arbor Learning Community, and they illuminate some of the issues around charter schools, even for schools that are locally organized, non-profit charters. Annarbor.com has an article, Parents fight for reinstatement of teacher at Ann Arbor Learning Community, which describes how a well-liked teacher was put on administrative leave. In examining this issue, let's leave aside the question of whether the administrative leave was the right decision--I don't know anything about their personnel matters.
The first thing that struck me has to do with teacher turnover--something that is often mentioned in critiques of charter schools. Not only has the "dean" of the school, Ticheal Jones, just left (in the middle of the school year!) for "personal" reasons, but according to the article, "Parents say the teacher’s forced absence is the third instance of this nature that the school has experienced in less than a year."
The second thing that struck me has to do with control of hiring and firing. In a typical public school district, the ultimate authority for hiring and firing would reside with the superintendent's office, but there would generally be a human resources department. And really, what is more important than the personnel you have teaching and working with the students? Here, it turns out, the hiring and firing is done by a group called Michigan Educational Personnel Services.

Carlie Lockwood, the vice president of human resources for MEP stressed that MEP works very closely with the dean, who is responsible for conducting teacher evaluations. But wait. . . didn't the dean just leave? I'm not sure why, or where that leaves things. There is an interim dean, and he was also recruited by MEP.

According to the article,

While AALC is a self-managed charter school, it contracts with Brighton-based MEP for its teachers and staff, said Malverne Winborne, director of Eastern Michigan University’s Charter Schools Office.
“MEP hires and places the employees,” Winborne said.
EMU is the authorizer of AALC, a K-8 school that was founded in 1997.

This is a typical arrangement for charter schools, particularly smaller charter schools--the schools hire someone else to do the hiring and firing of teachers (the teachers aren't really working for AALC, they are working for MEP) because the school (board) doesn't believe they have the skills or resources to do the hiring themselves. And by outsourcing this critical role, the school board gives up much of the local control that they ostensibly wanted in the first place.

And what does EMU's Charter Schools Office have to say about this? Not much, at least not publicly.

As much as we complain about the "transparency" issues with our local public district school boards, next to the charter schools they look crystal clear, and the charter school boards' transparency looks very muddy. In fact, that may be because as it turns out, those local charter school boards have precious little power or control. At least, right now, that's the way it seems to me.

Area Teens: Let's Make It Better Now

EMU is having a contest around LGBT Bullying issues. Money is involved. Yes, a $500 prize! Plus--it looks fun!

EMU's first annual advocacy speech competition! The focus of the competition is LGBT bullying among youth, titled "Let's Make It Better Now" (a spin-off of the "It Gets Better" campaign). Participants are invited to write and record a 4-7 minute persuasive speech articulating how students can "make it better now" for LGBT students within educational institutions and beyond. Speeches are due by December 1st . Participants must be EMU undergraduates and/or Washtenaw County youth (ages 16-24). Visit www.makeitbetternow.weebly.com or contact The Center for the Study of Equality and Human Rights out of the CMTA department at msage@emich.edu for more information.

Find more details here: http://makeitbetternow.weebly.com/

Ann Arbor School Board Candidate Websites

I've listed these Ann Arbor school board candidates alphabetically by last name, with links to their websites. Some of the websites are really nice!  By which I mean, well-developed, easy on the eyes, and informative. I wonder if, in past years, school board candidates even created websites.

If you read the information on these web sites, and you have questions for one or all of the candidates, put them in the comments. I'm going to send them some questions (and post the answers, I hope) in October.

If I know they have a twitter account I have also listed it below--just in case you want to follow them.

Albert Howard
(Yes, I know it says he is running for President; I guess you can run for school board and President at the same time. It is the same person, I checked.)
Follow Albert on twitter: @AlbertHowardUSA

Ahmar Iqbal

Patrick Leonard
Follow Patrick on twitter: @PatrickL2012

Simone Lightfoot

Larry Murphy

Andy Thomas

When is retraction the right decision?

Yesterday, I wrote a post criticizing our new superintendent for saying that she didn't have a position on school prayer. This was based on a summary of a meeting that I read in the Ann Arbor Journal. The idea that a person with years in educational administration didn't have a position on school prayer seemed so unlikely that I actually titled the post, "Did she really say that?"

Then I got an email from Liz Margolis, AAPS Communications Director, saying that the summary was incorrect. I updated the post with Liz Margolis' comments.

Later that night, I got a comment on the post from Ahmar Iqbal, one of the school board candidates, saying that the summary was incorrect, and essentially affirming what Liz Margolis had said.

At this point, I started wondering--should I pull this post? I'm not really sure about the protocols here, because I'm relatively new to blogging. I think it's one thing to leave a post up if you make a mistake that has a small bearing on the post--but if the main point is completely incorrect, then it seems to me it should be completely retracted.

(I admit that I was a little saddened by the idea of retracting a post--especially since I had put in some great vocabulary words! Words like obsequious and crestfallen! But just because I think I wrote something intelligent and funny doesn't mean that it shouldn't be retracted.)

Although some news organizations seem to have taken the point of view that once a post is posted, it can never be retracted, it can only be "corrected," not everyone agrees. In the science world, retractions from scientific journals happen frequently enough that there is now a blog, Retraction Watch, dedicated to identifying how and why scientific papers get retracted. Common reasons for retraction include falsification of data, plagiarism, and mistaken analysis of data. In fact, Retraction Watch just made it onto one of my favorite NPR shows, On the Media. You can find the link to that discussion here.

Obviously, my posts are not scientific papers, but at this point I had begun thinking that what had happened was akin to "mistaken analysis" and should be retracted. After all: was it my fault for relying on a secondary source (a news report) and not a primary source (being there)?

And then, this morning, I got on the computer and saw another comment. This comment is from Albert Howard, another school board candidate, and--in fact--the one who asked the question. And his recollection supports (more or less) the version in the Ann Arbor Journal. [The Journal, by the way, has not--as yet--posted a correction.]

So at this point, I think the conversation embedded in the original post itself is interesting. It brings up a lot of issues around recollection and reportage, or--as my husband said to me--the nuance of the conversation. I wasn't at the meeting, so I can't give you my first-person memory.

Recently, in the Ann Arbor Chronicle, Dave Askins wrote about conflicting memories of another meeting (Column: Video Replay Review for City Council). He wrote:

At issue is whether two seasons ago, back in February 2009, city of Ann Arbor CFO Tom Crawford recommended to the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority that the DDA have a policy to maintain a minimum fund balance as a reserve, and specifically, whether a minimum reserve amount was specified. . . 
The remarks made by Crawford – which everyone seems to recall (albeit differently) – took place in plain view on the public field of play, at the Feb. 17, 2009 city council meeting. (Emphasis added.)

Askins argues that--just as we do in many sports--we should go to the video replay for a definitive account. Since in the business of blogging about the schools, I surely am an armchair quarterback, I absolutely agree.

I'm quite sure this "orientation" meeting wasn't videotaped--it wasn't a school board meeting (although regular school board meetings are.) So we now have four accounts of the same discussion. I honestly think the discussion of what happened is at least as interesting as what actually happened, so I've decided that I'm not going to retract the original post (for now--new evidence could arise!). Instead, I invite you to read it with the understanding that several people can be in the same meeting and hear different things. What does that mean for our process? I also invite you to comment on this post, or the other one.

Let's also not forget: this meeting, to provide necessary background to new school board candidates, was a good idea on the part of the school district, and I hope they continue it any time there is a contested election.

School Registration: I'm scratching my head about a few things

Last week was school registration in the Ann Arbor schools, and it left me--and my husband--wondering about a few things.

First of all, the timing of registration is problematic. Registration is in the middle of the day, and there is no evening registration alternative. In addition, the "make-up" day is during the same week as the regular registration. Most people take vacations Saturday to Sunday, and most camps run week-by-week, so: why don't they set the make-up day(s) during the following week, on the theory that if you are out of town on Wednesday you will probably still be out of town on Friday?

Second of all, my daughter (like many of her classmates) came home with a schedule that made no sense. Sure, she was able to laugh about the fact that she was given two sections of the same exact class. She was able to laugh about the fact that she was given two classes during the same class period. And she was able to laugh about the fact that she was given Mandarin Chinese Level 2, despite the fact that a) she's never taken any Mandarin Chinese and b) she didn't have any Chinese class on her list of possible electives.

I admit--I laughed about it too. Until my husband said to me, "Don't they use computers for these things? Can't they program the computer so that it is impossible to assign someone two classes in the same class period? Can't they program the computer so that it is impossible to assign someone two sections of the same exact class?"

Um, good point. Yes, I'm pretty sure they could. If they would.

And while they're at it, if a student has a blank class period, why don't they fill in that period with a class the student requested? If that's not possible, the computer should just leave the space blank! If a class is not on a student's list of possible electives, why does the computer automatically fill in the blank--with a class the student has no interest in taking and possibly no qualifications to take? I think they could probably fix that too, with a little programming.

And really, I don't think it's a lot of programming. If we were to compare the amount of programming time it would take to the alternative (not programming), it would be obvious that the up-front programming time would be worth it. 

Because you might be wondering--what happens when students get these kind of cockamamie schedules? Well, the counselors get hundreds of change requests, and those all have to get dealt with manually. In other words, counselors are spending hundreds of hours on this.

In the meantime, the class counts for those mis-assigned classes are completely wrong.

Technology and (Lots) More

OK, I know you've been wondering where I've been...hey, it's summer!

I have been working on some longer posts, but in the meantime, here are some updates.

1. Tuesday, if you're like me you'll be keeping an eye on the recall elections going on in Wisconsin. At their core, they are all about how public employees are treated. On twitter I think you can search #wivotes or #wiunion for up to the minute information. I blogged about my experiences back in February at the rallies in Madison.

2. Also Tuesday, the Ann Arbor school board will be discussing the possibility of putting a technology millage on the ballot. It's a special meeting to discuss this--I'd encourage you to share your opinion, either by going to the board meeting (Balas, 7 p.m.) or by emailing the board at boe@aaps.k12.mi.us. I wrote about my concerns about whether this is a good way to pay for technology, in the post How should schools pay for technology? I also haven't heard much enthusiasm for the idea from anyone except school board members, so I wonder--why pursue something and spend so much time and energy on something that is going to be voted down anyway? And if I were in the teachers' union, I might consider opposing this. Why? Well, it was only a couple of years ago that the Saline superintendent threatened to eliminate the high school math department and move completely to on-line learning. (Yes, it was a dumb idea--and likely mostly a bargaining tool--but still--why support that kind of thinking?)

3. And this article, Michigan teachers continue to leave for other states,  has really gotten a lot of play. It's not a big surprise to anyone that there are very few teaching jobs in Michigan, and that we are training too many teachers. I wrote about that a short while ago. It would be nice if teacher training institutions consciously chose to reduce their class sizes and upgrade the quality of their incoming classes. Will they? I bet not nearly enough, because teacher education is their bread and butter...

4. The Ann Arbor district did a nice job sharing information with Ann Arbor Open parents when the fire happened in the building (it was an electrical problem). 

5. I'm quite sure Governor Rick Snyder isn't interested, but nonetheless I'm going to put out here, for my gazillion readers, two thoughts about how the state could raise more money. First, let's turn I-94 into a toll road, and dedicate those funds to improving the roads. (I grew up on the east coast. Most of the roads are tolled. People who use them, pay for them.) Second, let's look at what mobile home owners pay in lieu of "property taxes." The last time I checked, it was something like $15/year and was set in the 1950s. Maybe it's time to raise them.

6. Ypsilanti Schools have unveiled a new design for their website at www.ypsd.org. Let them know what you think!

7. I was a little sorry to see that Stone School got renamed Ann Arbor Technical High School. It reminded me of a line from a Grace Paley poem, "I gave away that kid like he was an old button." I admit, it's not exactly "giving away the kid," but did we have to lose the name? And if we did, couldn't we think of something less...boring...trendy...I mean, we've already got New Tech High School, and Washtenaw Technical Middle College...and is the name really going to change the reputation?

In case you are wondering, the original Stone School is now a cooperative preschool, at the corner of Packard and Stone School roads, and the building is 100 years old, this year.

8. About Ypsilanti's New Tech High School--A couple of weeks ago, I was checking out of a store, and because I was buying a backpack, I started talking about schools with the cashier. Her child has been going to New Tech. She thinks it is fabulous, that it has rekindled his interest in learning. Now, she said to me, he's thinking about college. She said, "Well, he was behind in school, and he's still behind, but now he's interested in catching up." I thought that was very high praise for a brand new program. And apparently they were just named a national demonstration site, too, so that is promising. (Now, I would link to the New Tech web site, but I guess ypsd.org still has some work to do, because the link is broken...if it gets fixed I will update it.)

How Should Schools Pay for Technology?

About 25 years ago, I wrote one of my first grants. It was a request from a local nonprofit to a local funder, and the grant request included some small amount of staff time. The main reason that we wrote the grant was to get a computer. We wanted the computer for word processing and for layout purposes. The only computer for our office of ten people was an Apple IIe. We needed something better, but we didn't know how to finance the computer.

Fast forward a few years, and the price of computers has come down quite a bit. At the same time, our reliance on them has increased concomitantly. Twenty years ago, if a computer went down in an office, it was annoying. It might have been used for billing and it was probably a standalone computer. Now, if a computer network goes down in an office, it is a crisis. It affects scheduling, billing, electronic records, databases, email, word processing...

Most of the workplaces I know--whether nonprofit or for-profit--no longer think of computers as special capital expenses, unless they are extremely specialized pieces. Instead of thinking of them as capital expenses, they are treated as operating expenses, as a part of doing business. Depending on the business, they might be replaced every three, four, or five years, but ultimately they are items that need regular replacement.

And that explains why I was a little bit surprised to see that Ann Arbor's school board is considering a .5 mill technology millage for November.

First of all, they are proposing to use bond money (a long-term fund) to pay for a short-term expense. At this point, I think school districts everywhere need to think of technology expenses as items with a relatively short shelf-life; items that need regular replacement and need to be budgeted for within operating expenditures. Most people finance their houses with long-term mortgages, but if they need to replace the dishwasher or the hot water heater, that money really should come out of operating (ongoing) funds, and not be paid for with long-term financing.

Second, even if I thought this were a good idea--and let's say that at this point I could perhaps be convinced--I think the board is going about this the wrong way. Why don't they ask some likely voters first whether this would be supported? And here's a hint: don't ask your most ardent school supporters (for example, PTO Chairs). Do some focus groups with a mix of taxpayers. If it won't be supported, don't waste precious political capital.

I know that many people think technology is really essential. I admit that it has changed my life in ways that I think are both good and bad.

But I was thinking the other day that if I had ever become an engineer (a career path I never considered), I definitely would have chosen civil engineering, because I'm fascinated by the civil infrastructure--water pipes, sewer pipes, water towers, transportation systems--that underlie our cities. And I'm sure that computers make the lives of civil engineers a whole lot easier.

It's worth remembering, however, that the Romans had an elaborate aqueduct system before anyone could print multiple copies of books. It's worth remembering that today's water system and subways in Manhattan were largely built over 100 years ago, by people who had no computers, and many of whom had no college degrees. [See maps of the NYC subway system here.]

In the last few years, I've seen many more high school courses offered that integrate technology. But it's worth remembering that those of us who learned to "keyline" text and "kern" typefaces in the days before computers still learned the principles of graphic design. It is eminently possible to teach most of what we need to know without computers. I don't believe that students would learn any less.

Is it a case that we "must" teach technology? Or is it the case that we "have" the technology so now we want to use it?

If we only use technology to do the same things that we could do without technology (for instance, use an interactive whiteboard to write the same things we would write on a chalkboard), then the technology is being wasted. If we can't afford all the technology that we have, then maybe we can identify areas where we can use less of it. (For instance--could we take all computers out of the K-2 curriculum?)

You may think that I'm wrong; that technology is essential to education today. And if you do, then I would ask you to argue that we need to treat technology as just another operating expense. And for the most part, that means--put technology expenses in the operating budget, and expect to upgrade that technology regularly.

Technology Lesson

I do really miss teaching, BUT it is not every day that I read or see a piece of information that makes me think of a bunch of lesson plans I could teach based on that piece.

This evening, though, I read Dusty Diary's post:
Percentage of Rural Homes with Four Technologies: 1930-1950.
Yeah, it's about the Census.

You might think this would be dry, but the numbers just hint at the story, and Dusty Diary's questions at the end are thought-provoking.

5. Last, a mere seventeen years before DD was born, a 62% majority of homes in areas like Augusta Township did not have a phone. Contrasted to today, that is astonishing. How were people's lives changed by this absence, compared to today? Were their minds quieter? Were their lives calmer? Did things move more slowly? What else might have been different?

So--history teachers, technology teachers, teachers trying to teach kids to turn dusty archives into something new...I hope Laura Bien's post gives you some great ideas.